Deal joy for Homeserve

Black Country-based household and emergency repairs business Homeserve is set to make waves in the USA where it has just signed up more than a million customers.

In a trading statement today, the group,which employs more than 1,000 people at its Walsall head office, said its international businesses had performed well in the last six months.

This included signing an agreement at the end of August which gave it access to a further 1.1 million households in New Jersey.

It now covers nearly six million households in the United States.

"This is evidence of the continuing material progress of our US business, where the pipeline of opportunties remains encouraging," said chief executive Richard Harpin.

City brokers are said to be particularly excited by the group's American plans, with the company looking to expand its presence state by state.

With Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey already covered, the plan is to create a national US network.

And, despite being the group's seasonally quiet first six months, the UK policy business has performed well, with the launch of an initiative enabling customers to purchase multiple policies in a single transaction, as well as a new partnership with BT to trial a product covering home technology.

The Emergency Repair networks had responded well to the UK floods, which had generated "significant" drying out and repair work.

In Europe the Domeo business had made good progress, having just reached one million policies, while the acquisition of Reparalia in Spain in August had doubled Homeserve's mainland Europe revenue.

The group, originally part of South Staffordshire Water but has since grown into a full-scale home repair operation, is also set to benefit from a surge in business in the second half of the year, the busiest period for emergency repairs and marketing activity as it signs up new customers.